How the Amazing Randi exposes fake psychics

Magician and debunker James Randi is the subject of the documentary “An Honest Liar.”

Magician and debunker James Randi is the subject of the documentary “An Honest Liar.”

Photo: Handout, Washington Post

Photo: Handout, Washington Post

Image
1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Magician and debunker James Randi is the subject of the documentary “An Honest Liar.”

Magician and debunker James Randi is the subject of the documentary “An Honest Liar.”

Photo: Handout, Washington Post

How the Amazing Randi exposes fake psychics

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

The term “crusading magician” may seem odd, but it’s a pretty good description of the career of James Randi, a.k.a. the Amazing Randi. Now in his 80s, Randi started out doing Houdini-style escapes but eventually devoted much of his time to unmasking self-styled psychics and faith healers, whom he considers charlatans and exploiters.

The documentary “An Honest Liar” entertainingly outlines his work and philosophy. He was and is a highly articulate campaigner for rationality, a lover of stage magic as long as it’s presented as deception instead of performed as a hustle. His efforts won him a MacArthur Fellowship in 1987.

The film devotes much running time to Randi’s extensive efforts to expose Uri Geller, an Israeli performer known for bending spoons allegedly using mental powers, and for supposedly reading minds. Randi was a frequent guest on the Johnny Carson “Tonight” show, and with the connivance of Carson’s staff, once secretly sabotaged one of Geller’s on-air tricks. (To their credit, filmmakers Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein allow Geller to put in his two cents’ worth.)

Another of Randi’s prime targets was faith healer Peter Popoff. The magician hired a private investigator to infiltrate one of Popoff’s revival meetings, and in 1986 exposed his methods. Randi — who came out of the closet in 2010 — even had his partner, artist Jose Alvarez, pose as a spirit channeler named Carlos, to expose that particular New Age delusion.

There are plenty of amusing clips of Randi’s earlier works, such as a TV appearance where, hung by his feet, he wriggles out of a straitjacket as a woman, standing next to him, warbles “You’ve Got the Magic Touch.” We also see footage of a gruesome illusion that Randi designed for an Alice Cooper tour in the 1970s. Friends and supporters, such as Penn & Teller’s Penn Gillette, offer their appreciations.

The film also underlines the depressing, if not surprising, fact that many of the people gulled by the various fakes resent Randi’s work instead of learning from it. Their anger is a testament to the sometimes poisonous power of belief.

Toward the end, the movie takes an abrupt turn involving the legal woes of Randi’s partner, which deeply upset the magician. It’s a compelling anecdote, which you might justify by calling it an example of the deceiver deceived, but it still seems to belong in a different film.

Otherwise, “An Honest Liar” is a worthwhile portrayal of an intelligent and skilled old-school conjuror who can look the audience in the eye and say, “I’m a deceiver, and I’m going to deceive you,” and then do just that. And he can do it with a clear conscience.